Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch comes back from the dead after her apparent MCU demise in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In the MCU, Wanda Maximoff has had various chances to redeem herself for taking the side of the villain. First, Wanda joined the Avengers after serving Ultron for a brief time. Then, she exiled herself after using Westview’s inhabitants like puppets for her magically altered reality. But the third time, Wanda Maximoff chose a more definitive strategy to stop herself from unleashing more chaos. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘ epic ending, Scarlet Witch destroyed Mount Wundagore with her still in it, seemingly removing her own threat for good.
Death often isn’t definitive in the comic book medium, and Wanda Maximoff is powerful enough to defy it. As MCU fans speculate on the possibility of Scarlet Witch’s MCU return, digital illustrator and avid Scarlet Witch fan skaiwitch imagines what the Avenger would look like after her resurrection. Instead of her usual red chaos magic, this Scarlet Witch sports a headpiece made from golden energy, suggesting her attainment of a pure source of magic. See the artwork below:
The fact that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness doesn’t show the exact moment Scarlet Witch’s dies on screen theoretically makes it possible for future MCU movies and shows to reveal that she teleported out of Mount Wundagore, or that she used a force shield to survive the mountain’s demolition. However, Marvel officially confirmed Scarlet Witch’s death in the book Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline. According to the book, Scarlet Witch “destroys Wundagore – and collapses it upon herself – ending two great threats to all of the Multiverse“, and her death is labeled as a fact.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Olsen has weighed in on Scarlet Witch’s status, revealing that Marvel has no plans for the character. In an April 2023 interview with the TODAY show, Olsen said that she hopes Scarlet Witch will return, but also that “there’s no contract” and no scripts that tie her to Marvel after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In a September 2023 interview with The Times, Elizabeth Olsen expressed her interest in different characters to Scarlet Witch, which suggests that, if the MCU ever brings Wanda Maximoff back, the actor might still enjoy a long break from the character.
At this point, Elizabeth Olsen and Marvel are free to decide whether to bring Scarlet Witch back or not. The MCU wouldn’t need any additional explanations for Scarlet Witch’s absence if the franchise retires the character. Otherwise, her return would also be easy to explain due to her chaos magic’s nearly endless power. Once back, Scarlet Witch’s MCU story could also go either direction. Wanda could fully redeem herself by using her magic against multiversal threats, or she could return as a full-fledged supervillain to fulfill the Darkhold’s prophecy, which predicts that the Scarlet Witch will destroy the whole multiverse.